How to Write a Thesis Statement

What a thesis statement does

It answers the question the essay is about, and it makes a promise: by the end, you will have shown this to be true. It usually sits at the end of the introduction, where the reader is ready for it.

Three qualities of a strong thesis

• Specific: it names exactly what you are claiming, not a general area.
• Arguable: a thoughtful person could disagree with it.
• Supportable: you can back it with evidence in the space you have.

From topic to thesis in four steps

1. Start with your topic: remote work.
2. Turn it into a question: does remote work make employees more productive?
3. Give your answer: for most knowledge workers it does.
4. Add the reason: because it removes commuting time and allows longer periods of uninterrupted focus.

Put the last two together and you have a thesis: "Remote work makes most knowledge workers more productive because it removes commuting time and allows longer periods of uninterrupted focus."

Weak and strong examples

• Weak: "This essay will discuss climate change." — announces a topic, claims nothing.
• Strong: "Carbon pricing is the most effective climate policy available because it changes behaviour across the whole economy rather than one sector at a time."
• Weak: "Shakespeare's Hamlet is a play about revenge." — a fact nobody disputes.
• Strong: "Hamlet's delay is not indecision but a refusal to act on evidence he cannot verify."

Match the thesis to the essay type

An argumentative thesis takes a side. An analytical thesis makes a claim about how or why something works. An expository thesis states what you will explain and the angle you will take. A comparative thesis says what the comparison reveals, not merely that two things are similar and different.

Revise it after you draft

Your first thesis is a working hypothesis. Once the essay is drafted, reread the thesis and ask whether it still describes what you actually argued. Very often the draft has found a sharper claim than the one you started with — replace the old thesis with the better one.

A quick checklist

• Does it answer the question that was set?
• Could someone reasonably disagree?
• Is every key term specific?
• Can you support it in the word count you have?
• Does each body paragraph help prove it?